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DeanLearner

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Everything posted by DeanLearner

  1. DeanLearner
    Woah those are some pretty scary stories. But as you, and @kibosh said, what will probably just happen is that the market adjusts a little and people are more inclined to sell sets at slightly less stratospheric prices. For the most part, I don’t think prices get to extortionate levels, and I’ve been happy to pay a bit of a mark up for the opportunity to buy a set that’s unavailable. However the bottom line is that I don’t think it will stop people “investing” in Lego, because if they’re anything like me, they’re still collectors first, and investors second. The idea of investment is simply an excuse I tell myself (and my girlfriend!) for the cupboards full of unopened boxes of Lego that were too good an opportunity not to buy at the time, but that I can never quite bring myself to open (or realistically sell)!
  2. DeanLearner
    Anything with new animal mounds would be good (please no “Fun at the Dog Pound”), and while it would be nice if Lego continued the theme, I’m not sure exactly what it would entail... Kid carrying balloons Kid wearing animal mask (new mould/repurposed head from CMF animal costume) Selection of zoo animals (new lion, couple of monkeys) Zoo keeper (with high-callibre rifle to take care of all the loose animals given the lack of pieces for enclosures...) Hmmm yeah maybe it could work!
  3. DeanLearner
    I’m always somewhat terrified it may adversely affect the adhesive properties of the glue on the stickers (either short or long term), though I imagine it would probably reduce the incidence of minute air bubbles with the transparent pieces.
  4. DeanLearner
    Hmmm, that’s an interesting point. I wonder whether that’s down to the emotional component of Lego investment. Perhaps people are happy keeping hold of an asset when there is a certain pleasure to simply owning it: an attachment people are never going to have toward shares or other more abstract investments.
  5. DeanLearner
    I suspect there’s not an awful lot more to be added here, but I just wanted to address a point made (by MAB, and possibly others) about resale prices being determined by market forces. The way in which much secondary market Lego is sold is fundamentally different to the way it is sold in shops. In a regular toy shop, the retailer effectively loses money the longer stock remains unsold (because retail space is expensive and could be used for a better selling product), and hence discounts are often required to shift surplus stock. This would be an example of excess supply reducing prices. However, there is little cost to maintaining perpetual fixed-price listings on eBay, BrickLink etc, and storage of Lego in an attic/spare room is far cheaper than on the shelves of Toys R’ Us. Consequently, there is no disincentive to listing a set a x2 its RRP, as if it doesn’t sell then there is no significant cost impact. Before long, every seller comes to see this price (for example) as the going “market” rate, regardless of whether anyone ever actually sells an item at that markup, and you end up with effectively a cartel of people setting prices. Now, to be honest, I don’t really have all that big a problem with resellers personally. No one is forcing people to pay such inflated prices, and it’s not like anyone’s dying due to lack of Lego. But I do think it’s a bit rich for people who are more than happy to benefit when things are going their way to start complaining when they loose out on an investment. There are much harder ways to earn a living after all!
  6. DeanLearner
    Goat! Yes please! Also 10193 Medieval Market Village
  7. DeanLearner
    This is kind of small print, but I’m slightly sad that there doesn’t appear to be any representation of the top hatch through which Lando rescues Luke from the antenna he’s hanging off on Bespin. It’s such an iconic scene that it would have been great to see it in some way, even if it wasn’t able to open. I’m sure I did once see an epic scale MOC that did include the hatch though...
  8. DeanLearner
    Great storytelling with your setups and photography as always. I’ve enjoyed reading your updates (and going right back through Ballabreek’s “history”) for a while now. You must have a pretty sizeable collection of figures and partially rebuilt sets backstage though!
  9. DeanLearner
    Sets like the original UCS MF and Taj Mahal were outliers in terms of the magnitude of price inflation. The people benefitting the most up to now will have been the scalpers, only drawn into Lego for the promise of a return on such “headline” sets, then artificially jacking-up the price (most notably on eBay) and creating the perception of some enormous demand. I’d be curious to know how many of these sets did ever sell at those >$2000 etc prices that you see in articles etc. Either way, it can only be a good thing that their bubbles have burst. Lego will remain a moderately good investment for the most part (economics and production scales mean Lego will only ever rerelease sets in exceptional circumstances), and I doubt whether loss of potential profits from MF or TM will harm the vast majority, of BrickLink/BrickOwl sellers offering a great service to the community.
  10. DeanLearner
    Looks like Brothers Brick have a photo of the box. To be honest I don’t know the original well at all, but it’s a bit of a disappointment that we don’t have a new set instead of this. Lots of bulky pieces but without much in the way of interesting detail - it would be hard to justify the space to display it, let alone the cost... https://www.brothers-brick.com/2017/10/30/lego-re-release-taj-mahal-news/
  11. DeanLearner
    Woah! I don’t know whether I should be relieved (I pretty sure I’m spending <£100/month) or outright scared! That’s a lot of money!
  12. DeanLearner
    If that’s 10% of customers, I wonder what percentage of revenue is accounted for by AFOLs...
  13. DeanLearner
    It’s kind of a shame that Lego make quite so many helicopters and lorries, as those are actually pretty good (especially by City standards)! As much as I don’t want another police helicopter, the new bear and Grizzly Man (for want of a better name) will be hard to resist...
  14. DeanLearner
    I really like the refrigerator truck there - it’s got a brilliantly inventive (and yet surprisingly simple!) “face”. I agree this single thread is a much better way to show your work - any chance you could include a couple of photos when you post a video? It’s not always feasible to be watching videos while forum-browsing.
  15. DeanLearner
    Yes! I've not had a chance to build it yet, but I was planning to do the same colour exchange with the dark red to dark blue. I know what you mean about the medium nougat - I like the colour but it feels oversaturated compared to the light and dark bley (and I think replacing either of those colours would be very difficult - maybe white would help though. I was also wondering whether it would be possible to replace the Nexo knights shield at the the top of the other building as it looks a bit unfinished, and maybe just remove the extremely bright flower sign completely.
  16. DeanLearner
    Yeah, there's something about AS that doesn’t quite click for me. Even though the interiors, and ground floor in general, are pretty great, somehow the set seems to lack stylistic coherence. Several of the features (such as the spire on the bakery) feel slightly grandiose for the very small scale of the buildings, and the colours are a bit of a mish-mash (the dark red awnings/roofing over the 1st/2nd floors of the bakery feel particularly incongruous), which means it feels more like a “sampler” of difference concepts (which in a sense it is) than a clear thing in itself. I don’t think I can explain it fantastically, but somehow AS has neither the stylistic clarity of PR (where you instantly get a feel of what they were aiming for), nor the crammed urban sense that DO (kind of) approximates. Apologies for the tangent! I’m certainly hoping for a return to a single 32x32 building with a bit more space to develop the concept.
  17. DeanLearner
    Pretty much a straight MOD/mash-up of BB and the 2016 Service Station 60132. That station was pretty cool though, I picked up a copy when it eventually went on sale and am hoping to convert it to a fully-enclosed structure someday...
  18. DeanLearner
    Assuming the recent information about set numbers and prices (and extrapolating likely set size), it looks like there are only a couple of options that might represent a station (not that I think it’s likely), two of which were in the £300, and one in the modular £140 price range. I think it’s unlikely they would try to make a station at the £140 price point, or as discussed above, to try to fit it into the modular range, so I guess it’s a question of whether it would be one of the more expensive sets. At present the most frequent predictions for these two seem to be: Fairground rollercoaster City plan update/equivalent Large architecture series building Hogwarts Castle Train station Unspecified Castle/Ninjago set
  19. DeanLearner
    Yeah I don’t see how a train station would fit into the modular standard. The track couldn’t exit out of the front or sides, and so would need to extend out to the rear, and would need to be at least 48 studs deep to fit in a train and the pavement/station entrance in front of it. Plus, one of the previous benefits of the modular buildings was that they look good on a shelf even without being integrated into a “city”, but a larger modular station would be much harder to display on a shelf and require a massive commitment of layout size (especially given the size needed to incorporate track curves).
  20. DeanLearner
    If those figures are accurate then you’ve got to wonder what the Lego corporate strategy is (and whether the existence of such sets in the pipeline would have had anything to do with the change in CEO etc). The amount of expensive sets this year was already outside the range of most adults (let alone children), and even the most dedicated fan will surely not make more than 2-3 purchases per year in the £150/€150 price range. Sounds like there could be plenty of Lego boondoggles left sat on the shelves...
  21. DeanLearner
    I agree that they won’t choose a subject far outside of the time period already established, and for that (and size reasons) I can’t see them ever doing a hospital. Probably not a 32x32 Lego Store either (though if they ever were to do a stand-alone 16x32 then that would seem a great fit), and personally I’d be a little disappointed to see a police stations (its easy enough to pick up police parts to MOC one). My favourites would be maybe a combination (DS style) of a hardware store and some sort of clothing store/tailors with a classic shop front.
  22. DeanLearner
    Great idea! Again, working from the UK price of £650 (7541 pieces), and just going by currently available sets (though several I do already own), I would opt for: Ninjago City £260 (4867 pieces) Saturn V £110 (1969 pieces) Old Fishing Store £140 (2061 pieces) Parisian Restaurant £132 (2466 pieces) Total: £642 (11333 pieces) I would argue these constitute some of the most beautiful and important System sets currently in production, and massively better value than the UCS MF: 50% more pieces for the same price!
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